Next : Young American Writers on the New Generation

America's much-discussed but little-understood "twenty-somethings" reveal their true face in this anthology of 16 personal essays by American writers aged 24 to 32. Humourous, ironic, satirical or angry, the contributors, including Naomi Wolf and poets Stephen Beachy and Paul Beatty, grapple with how the uncertain cultural, political and sexual times in which they came of age have affected their lives and views of the world. In what amounts to a mini-debate, four of the contributors present their widely differing views on the future of feminism. Other essayists chart the confusions caused by shifting sexual mores. Many of the writers explore the fallout of their parents' cultural revolt of the 1960s and 1970s. Other topics covered include: the generation's loss of heroes; the rage of being young and HIV-positive; the post-civil rights era's "acceptable shades of blackness"; and the arrival of the new "Generation Mex".